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It was enough to make Italians choke on their bread sticks when a government minister yesterday suggested the country should scrap its famed two-hour lunch breaks.

Gianfranco Rotondi said the midday break threw a ‘spanner into the work-day gears’ and ‘harmed the harmony’ of the country.

Lunchtime in Italy is sacred, with many shops and offices closing between 1pm and 3pm. Writing on a blogging site, the programmes minister said Italians should follow Britain’s lead where, he claimed, we ‘only take lunch breaks three days out of five’.

One British expat, Lorraine Gray, who lives in Rome, is in favour of the plan. ‘I have never understood how they can go back to work after eating so much,’ she said.

However, unions said it was an attack on workers’ rights and nutritionist Pietro Antonio Migliaccio said Italians had ‘different DNA to Anglo Saxons’ and were used to eating more in the day.